Surf's Up: Mavericks Gets "The Call" for Saturday

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Surf's Up: Mavericks Gets "The Call" for Saturday

Grab your boards. The Mavericks Surf Contest is on for this Saturday.

The contest window for this 2009/10 edition of Mavericks — one of the most prestigious surfing competitions in the world — officially opened on November 1. In previous years, it was up to the discretion of the contest director (founder Jeff Clark, who popularized the surf spot back in 1975) to decide when conditions were ideal to hold the competition. Then the two dozen contestants would have 24 hours to hustle out to Half Moon Bay, some 20 miles south of San Francisco, boards in hand and ready for battle.

Last year, an offseason of tournament infighting ended with Clark being removed as contest director. And in a surprising move, the power of calling for the contest's commencement was handed over to the surfers themselves. Voting by email, once a majority of surfers agreed that wind, surf, and other criteria were good enough to go, "the call" would be made.

Things should get under way at 8 am, and those interested in watching Mavericks live can try to go to the contest site (although organizers actively discourage spectators). Better options would be going to San Francisco's AT&T Park, where all the action will be shown on the giant hi-def scoreboard in left-center field, checking updates on Twitter at @Mavericks_Surf, or watching the live stream as three-time winner Darryl "Flea" Virostko (seen above) goes for a record fourth title.